To those accepted - How to read the financial aid estimate?

<p>My friend is wanting to know how to read his financial aid offer. He got his packet, accepted, yay! Then we flip to the fin aid offer, and all it has listed on there are the two in-state scholarships he knew he'd be offered totaling 5k a year. Nothing else. At all. </p>

<p>Can anyone else weigh in and tell us, based on their own financial aid papers you got today, if that means Vandy's offering him no money at all or what?</p>

<p>Did he send in the college board financial profile? I did not know that I had to (just sent in my FAFSA) until this weekend. I just got a general financial info sheet in my acceptance packet too, so I’m hoping I’ll get a more personalized estimate once Vandy receives my profile.</p>

<p>Vanderbilt requires a FAFSA and CSS Profile to be filed in order to determine a financial aid award. You also need to provide them with copies of both student and parent tax returns. If you have not submitted the 2 profiles, no award will be offered by the school. Your friend needs to contact financial aid office to find out what is missing from the file.
good luck</p>

<p>He’s already submitted all of that, several months back. We were just wondering if that was all he was being offered for financial aid, because it says “offer,” not “estimate.”</p>

<p>It is possible that he’d not get offered a lot, both of his parents are college professors. That’s why we don’t know, because it could be that he wasn’t offered anything.</p>

<p>Any additional aid will be based on the EFC of the fafsa and css profile. If he feels that he should have received more money based on EFC, he should contact the financial aid office to make sure the forms were filed correctly. It sounds like Vandy has not offered him any aid based on EFC and submitted info.</p>

<p>He just called; they got all his forms but couldn’t offer him aid. So sad! I’m afraid this is going to be the case for all the schools he applied to.</p>